Wednesday, August 13, 2008

T. Boone Pickens has been an oilman for nearly 60 years, but all that experience counted for little last month as the well-schooled octogenarian tycoon took a beating on oil and natural gas bets, The Post has learned.

Sources say the commodity half of the legendary wildcatter's hedge fund BP Capital sank about 35 percent in July. The fund is believed to be down about 10 percent currently for the year.

"We notified our commodity-fund investors last week that the steep decline in natural gas and oil prices has had an adverse impact on our performance," a Pickens spokeswoman said in an e-mail....MORE

...BP Capital runs roughly $7 billion in two funds with the BP Capital Commodity fund apparently taking the hit. Boone called for $150 oil before Morgan Stanley famously did in early June, but his promotion of the Pickens Plan clearly consumed him last month, and it would appear he did not take any chips off the table. With Brian Hunter back staking the natural gas pits, and Peter Thiel sitting on the sidelines after making a well timed exit from crude this spring, you can bet the drama in the energy pits is far from over. But this round goes to the young bucks....